Michael Johnson

Career

He started target shooting in 2002 and his first international competition was Oceania 2002, where he competed against other SH2 shooters. Johnson ended up with a fourth placing. However, at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in the SH2 Standing Air event, Johnson shot a perfect 600 out of 600 points world record round in the preliminaries and then equalled the world record for a gold medal in the finals with 704.3.

Later that year, Johnson represented his country in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.

Johnson secured a bronze medal in the Mixed R4-10 m air rifle standing SH2 with a score of 701.2 after a shoot-off with South Korean shooter Ho-Gyoung You. 2009 started well with Johnson building towards London 2012 competing again at the Jikji Cup in South of Korea now called The Open Asian Shooting Championships.

Achievements

• Johnson was later the first New Zealand World Champion, when in July 2006, where he won the Gold Medal in the SH2 Prone Air event shooting 600 out of 600 points at the IPC World Championships in Switzerland. In 2007 Johnson attended the Jikji Cup in South of Korea, he entered into four events SH2 Standing, Prone, Falling Targets and 50m Small-bore and won all four events winning four gold medals and was awarded the Most Valuable Player award and the Jikji Cup. Then in 2008, Johnson attended The Hessian Trophy after shooting 600 out of 600 along with four other shooters he shot a final score of 105.8 to win. Johnson won 3 medals - Gold in R9 50m event, Silver in R4 10m Air rifle standing and Bronze in R5 10m Air rifle prone. The 2010 world championships in Zargreb, Croatia allowed Michael Johnson to compete again against the best in the world, Johnson won the Bronze medal in the air rifle standing event after shooting a perfect 600 / 600 points. This was a buildup for his next event where he won the gold medal in the R9 50m prone.22 event, Johnson set a new world record with 593 points and became world champion in mixed R9 50m.22 prone. Johnson was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 Queen"s Birthday Honours, for services to Paralympic sport.